Andria E-Mordaunt Woman of substance
I meant to end my last column (Meanwhile in Kabul… PN131)
with the wonderful news that Afghanistan has now adopted a harm reduction
drug policy, but I ran out of words. This month my thoughts turn to Nepal,
another beautiful country with a large number of IDUs affected by HIV (and
as it happens a limited harm reduction strategy).
Last December, the John Mordaunt Trust (JMT), set up in honour of my late
husband, held its tenth anniversary gathering at Oasis North London with funding
from UNAIDS. One delegate who stayed with me was a young man from Nepal, who,
like me, had a ‘history with needles’.
While he slept, my boyfriend and I noted the noise he made, a kind of snoring,
not to mention the coughing throughout the day.
We began addressing this by giving him Lemsip. Then he finally accepted some
amoxycillin (from my fridge) from a stash my doctor had kindly agreed I could
always have because of my frequent lung infections. At this point, I decided
it was time to have talk with our visitor.
I asked him whether he had ever been tested for HIV or hep C. He said no.
I was a little stunned but then I don't live in Nepal. So I reminded him of
some of those obvious-to-me facts: that he is an important activist in his
country as well as a much-loved father and husband. And therefore, because
of these facts, perhaps he should know his health status in order to address
what he may have to address, as soon as possible.
Three months later he sent me a confidential email saying he had been diagnosed
with hep C and HIV the day before.
He urged me: please could I help him to access treatment by any means necessary.
I rapidly discovered he had also asked others from the international community
the same question, but promised to do what I could as soon as I could.
The issues raised by his request are massive and ones that I believe we in
the West all too readily take for granted. I quickly ascertained that in Nepal
only the educated and/or privileged receive adequate health care. Several
years ago I wrote an article on www.usersvoice.org.uk about TRIPS (Trade Related
Intellectual Property Rights) and how these were impeding the speed at which
the poor were able to access ARVs and other medicines to fight blood-borne
diseases. Given that this wasn't the first request to the JMT for urgent HIV
and hep C treatment to be sent abroad, I had to get my thinking cap on fast.
I rapidly came to the conclusion that the best I could do from London was
provide the guy with some peer support and send a few herbs over to Kathmandu,
but this still hurts us all.
I had to ask myself why JMT had not expanded its work, like so many other
NGOs, to be able to send drugs abroad.
One obvious answer is probably that eyebrows would definitely be raised if
a drug user organisation started sending drugs abroad.
I wonder how Interpol would see that? Moreover, the rules are that none of
us are supposed to send medicines abroad or give them to anyone else as we
are not medically trained (well I'm not). Well yes, but if you know there
is a chance that you will be saving somebody's life... it feels different.
I am aware of one guerilla network that sends HIV drugs to people in developing
countries to save lives but to do this we would need more money first, and
speedily. In the meantime, there are other routes.
I know of friends in higher places who regularly fly around the globe and
are willing to deliver medicines to sick colleages and friends.
That is one temporary answer. So, if anyone has any better ideas, please contact
me as soon as possible at andria3a@yahoo.co.uk
Meanwhile I'm back to the fundraising table and researching all other life-saving
possibilities for Nepal.
By the time you read this the 18th International Conference on the Reduction
of Drug Related Harm will have taken place. I’m hoping they will manage
to inaugurate some kind of network of user-activists, though I doubt the name
will go down well with the authorities: International Network of People who
Use Drugs!
I'm pregnant so unable to attend. What's most intriguing for me is that the
funding for this is coming ultimately from the UK government: perhaps they're
not so bad after all.
